If love exists God exist. No Love, No God. You can find God in every temple, church, monastery but you cannot reach unless you have love in your heart. This is a very beautiful story to explain a relationship with God.
A wandering ascetic camped in a village. A man came and told him he wanted to realize God. The ascetic asked, ”Have you ever loved anybody?” ”No, I am not guilty of such an ordinary thing,” the man replied. ”I have never bent so low; I want to realize God.”
The ascetic asked again, ”Have you never felt the pangs of love?”
The seeker was emphatic. ”I am telling the truth,” he replied.
The poor man spoke honestly. In the realm of religion to have loved is a disqualification. He was sure that if he said he had loved someone the ascetic would ask him to rid himself of love then and there – to renounce the attachment and to leave all worldly emotions behind before seeking his guidance. So even if he had loved someone, he felt he must reply in the negative.
The monk asked for the third time, ”Say something. Think carefully. Not even a little love – for somebody, for anybody? Haven’t you ever loved one person a little?”
The aspirant said, ”Pardon me, but why do you keep harping on the same question? I wouldn’t touch love with a ten-foot pole. I want to attain self-realization. I want Godhood.”
To this, the ascetic replied, ”Then you will have to excuse me. Please approach someone else. My experience tells me that if you had loved somebody, anybody, that if you had even had a glimpse of love, I could help enlarge it, I could help it to grow – probably to reach God. But if you have never loved, then you have nothing in you; you have no seed to grow into a tree. Go and make inquiries of someone else. My friend, in the absence of love I do not see any opening for God.”
